A variety of types of sensing devices exist for capturing sensory data and generating analog or digital signals representative of the sensory data. Output generated by a sensing device may include undesired signal(s) (e.g., noise) in addition to signal(s) that encode meaningful information. Such noise may include various forms of environmental noise such as electromagnetic interference (EMI), electrical noise associated with other devices, vibrational noise, and so forth. Noise may also be generated from internal operations of a sensing device (e.g., thermal noise).
Various types of analog or digital filters may be used to perform signal separation functions. For example, a filter may be used to separate a signal that is contaminated with interference, noise, or other signals. The design of a filter may be influenced by the nature of the information encoded in a signal. For example, for those applications in which information encoded in the time domain is of importance, time domain parameters (e.g., step response) may be of primary importance in the design of a filter. Alternatively, for certain applications in which information encoded in the frequency domain is of importance, filtering may be performed to allow certain frequencies to pass unaltered, while blocking other frequencies. In such applications, a filter's performance with respect to various frequency domain parameters (e.g., roll-off, passband ripple, stopband attenuation, etc.) may be of particular interest.